>> From the Library of Congress in Washington DC.
[ Silence ]
>> Is a bestselling author and her latest books include, the dramatics mystery "Shine" and "Violet in Bloom "from her twin Flower Power Book Series.
>> In Violet in Bloom, Katie-Rose, Violet, Milla, and Yasaman, four girls with seemingly with little in common but their flower names are nurturing their new friendship and are busy building luvyabunches.com, their very own social-networking site. It will take all the strength and genuine affection of these pals to weather a particularly stormy week of 5th-grade.
>> Lauren understands 5th-grade dramas and brings them to another hilarious and memorable book that you will love.
>> Yehey! Please help us welcome Lauren Myracle.
>> Say yes.
>> Yehey!
>>Yehey! Let's do a choo-choo, woah! Alright! Hello, people. This is the--oh look, I've got an interpreter person. Yehey! So, I kind of feel like I should be a choo-choo train as all of them we're choo-choo train. I kind of fee l like Miley Cyrus or any of you are Hannah Montana fans or used to be in the olden days before she got really old. She wears these little things like when she does her concerts and I've never worn one of these mouth thingies before. So I'm feeling very cool, but I'm feel like even cooler that you all are here and you get the to lie on this fluffy pink, yellow, red pillows, and I get the Target chair and I'm not going to really sit on it but this is a once in a lifetime chance so I have to sit down at least for a minute. How do I look? It is fabulous? Alright! Yehey! Thank you for the yeheys. So who it here is a reader? Alright! Who here loves reading so much that they'd be willing to go, woohoo!
>> Woohoo!
>> Alright, I'm that way too. I feel like books have saved my life again and again, and again, and when I'm lonely they are there for me and when I need to laugh, they are there for me and when I feel like I'm really weird which I am they are there for me to tell me that other people are really weird too. Hopefully you all get that from book as well. This book is called "Luv Ya Bunches." And who here, is anybody in 5th-grade? So wait, is anybody--who is here has been in 5th-grade before.
>> Woohoo!
>> Alright, yehey, 5th-grade. Okay, so we all need friends, right? Everybody needs friends. But sometimes friendships are tricky. Has anybody ever had a friendship that kind of didn't feel quite right because maybe the friend did something that was a little mean to you? Am I supposed to be pulling this away from me? Is that better? Alright, how's that?
>> Further away.
>> Huh?
>> Further away.
>> Further away. Okay, how's that? I'm so--maybe? Alright. How's that? Is that better? So I would call that a toxic friendship. When the friendship kind of go soar. Alright, it's still hitting my mouth so I'm trying to bend it around. And in this book, this book is all about four girls trying to become friends in a way that's really awesome. And I feel like friendship should lift you up, not ever tear you down. Do you all agree? And so you'd have a friend that makes you feel sad or that says little things like, you know, not hurt your feelings, but why would somebody say that or not to be rude but those people are usually not on your side. So this is a book about four awesome 5th-graders. This is, I don't know if you can see it but this is Violet and this is Katie-Rose, and this Camilla, she goes by Milla and this is Yasaman. And the four girls don't know each other at all, at the beginning of 5th-grade, but they find out over the course of the book that they're all named after flowers which is pretty cool. Yasaman is Turkish for Jasmine and a Camilla, I didn't know this but a Camilla is a tiny little pink flower that grows on streams and the way they become friends is kind of crazy. Milla is hanging out with two bad girls named Modessa and Quin. Everybody make that villain sound go--ssshhh, boo. Yeah, alright, awesome, but she doesn't know how to get out of it and I think that happen sometimes to kids. You're in friendships and they don't feel quite right but you don't know what to do about it. So Milla is hanging out with these girls and she's got this bubble head turtle that's like her good luck charm. Raise your hand if you got a good luck charm. Oh, I'm so glad. But her good luck charm goes missing. It gets stolen by somebody and I'll give you--I'll go ahead and spoil it a little bit. The person who steals it is not one of these girls, but listen to what happens. So, Katie-Rose really wants to be friends with Milla. Katie-Rose is like that sassy girl who can never stop talking and she's kind of needy but she's also adorable and she wears her hair with little bitty pigtails and so this is the day where I'm going to be reading from where it's time for Potato Olympics. And Potato Olympics is something that her teacher made up for each potato has to compete in an Olympic event and so Katie-Rose is really psyched and here is what happens. "When I call out your name, you may get your potato and come to the front of the class." Ms. Perez says to the class. Katie-Rose thinks Ms. Perez looks really cute today. She's wearing a funky turquoise dress with diagonal ruffles along the bottom and since this is a dress and not pants, no minis like Modessa can trash talk about her--about her underwear even if they wanted too. Ms. Perez scans the room, "Who would like to go first?" Katie-Rose raises her hand and shoots up. In an extremely bizarre twist, Modessa's hand shoots up too. Katie-Rose doesn't get it. Why does Modessa want to go first? Modessa never wants to go first. Modessa never wants to go, period. "Modessa?" Ms. Perez says surprised, "Terrific!" Modessa rises from her desk and saunters to the back of the room for each 5th grader has a hook for jackets and a cubby for backpacks and messenger bags and random other stuff. The cubbies are organized alphabetically so Katie-Rose's cubby is in between Yasaman's, yehey, and Modessa's, unyehey. It takes Modessa a long time to get out of her potato. Katie-Rose shares a look with Yasaman. She even has time to whisper. "Hey, did you like my video?" Yasaman nods. "I didn't get to watch it all but what I did see, yeah, I love it." "Modessa?" Ms. Perez prompts. Katie-Rose cranes her neck over her shoulder. Why is Modessa standing so near Katie-Rose's cubby? "Step away," Katie-Rose says in her head. She does not want medusa germs jumping on to her stuff. "I'm ready," Modessa says pivoting on her heel and giving Ms. Perez a smile. Ms. Perez who doesn't know that Modessa made fun of her underwear smiles back. Potato in hand, Modessa goes to the front of the room. "This is Tate Tate", she announces. Tate Tate the potato has blue magic marker eyes and inch-long black eyelashes. Her lips, it's clearly a girl potato, are pursed and pink. "Tate Tate is going to compete in ladies gymnastics." Modessa nods at Tate Tate. "Okay, Tate Tate, let's do it." She throws Tate Tate into the air. Tate Tate goes up, up, up and then down, down, down, splat. The class laughs. Modessa is pleased in her cooler in that way. "I never said she was any good," Modessa says. "I'd like to see you put a tad more effort into it next time, Modessa." Ms. Perez says. "Clean up your mess and return to your sits." "See!" Katie-Rose tells Ms. Perez mentally, "I told you she was a bad egg." "Who's next," Ms. Perez says scanning the room. Katie-Rose's arms zings back into the air. Her finger stretched yoga like to the ceiling as do her eyebrows. "Katie-Rose", Ms. Perez says. Katie-Rose hops up and goes to her cubby. Modessa's back there too dumping Tate Tate remains into the trash can, "Poor Tate Tate" Katie-Rose thinks. "She didn't deserve to get Modessa as a trainer." Katie-Rose wiggles her backpack out of the cubby, unzips the main portion and pulls out Potato von Schnitzel Fritzl who goes by Carl. She make sure Carl's little knitted hat made from a sock is in place then grabs his sled, an old toy track borrowed from Max and several rubber bands to get them strapped up. "Oh, my God!" Modessa says, hovering behind her. Katie-Rose rolls her eyes. Yes, she thinks I put effort into my presentation. Yes, I enjoy school so--except the next thing she knows, Modessa is shoving her aside but Modessa snatching her backpack. "Hey!" Katie-Rose exclaims. Modessa marches to Ms. Perez's desk holding Katie-Rose's backpack by the top loop like it's a dead rat. She dumps it on Ms. Perez's desk. "Look inside!" Modessa commands, "Just look."
^M00:10:44
Katie-Rose is baffled. Yasaman glances at her for expression and question. Katie-Rose lifts her shoulders. At the front of the room, Ms. Perez frowns and pulls open the front of Katie-Rose's backpack. She peers inside. "What did I do?" Katie-Rose wonders. "Did I forget to turn something in? Am I not allowed to have gel pens?" Ms. Perez lifts her head and looks at Katie-Rose who gets a bad feeling at her stomach. "Katie-Rose," she says in a tone no teacher has ever used with her. "Yes?" Katie-Rose says. Modessa takes over thrusting her hand into Katie-Rose's backpack and pulling out a red and orange bubble head turtle. She holds it up for everyone to see. "Katie-Rose stole Camilla's turtle," she accuses. Katie-Rose's arms go slack and she drops Carl and all his equipment. "Katie-Rose," Modessa says "is a thief." So poor Katie-Rose--does anybody think that Katie-Rose really stole the turtle? No. Who do you think really put the turtle in Katie-Rose's backpack? Yell it out. Modessa. Everybody say, ssssss. Yeah, I mean what an uncool thing to do and the only reason Modessa did it is because Milla is trying to reach out to Katie-Rose and Modessa is like, "No, Katie-Rose is a foster friend. She's always wanting you but she doesn't get you." And so instead of letting Milla be friends with Katie-Rose she sets it up to make it looks like Katie-Rose is a thief, which is uncool and so the rest of the book is about how devastated Milla is because this girl she liked stole her turtle. She doesn't realize she had but she really didn't, and how Katie-Rose is completely devastated because she's been accused of being a theft and suddenly people are putting things on her lockers like you know, "theft" and "don't leave your stuff near Katie-Rose" and one of the girls, Violet, she knows the truth but for some reason--reasons that are explained in the book, she doesn't come forward and tell the truth for a really long time. And so, Yasaman is the glue who brings them all together 'cause Yasaman is really good at computers. And in fact the whole book is filled with like instant messaging chats. It looks like this kind of because Yasaman has created a website called, at the beginning of the book blahblahsomethingsomething.com what she knows is a horrible name but it's like Facebook for 5th-graders and it's for all of her friends to get online and chat. Only Yasaman doesn't have any friends until the end of the book. And so this book is about how these four girls find each other, fight justice and decide to use their flower power to keep on changing the world in a better way which they'll hope what you guys will always do in your lives. Follow your heart, follow your brain, and be true. Be true to what this world wants us to do. So that's it for me. I don't know what the timing is. Do we have time for any question? How we doing Target dude? Is it time for me to go away? There is a mysterious no Target person. So, does any--that means I'm just going to stay here. I can do choo-choo, choo-choo! Who has any questions about books or writing, or reading, or anything like that? Yeah. Yell it out baby, what?
[ Inaudible Remark ]
Oh, she's holding up of copy of "Thirteen Plus One" which is another book that I wrote. Yeah, I'm going to sign it. I think there is a plan and if there was a Target dude here, they would tell me what the plan is. I go to a signing table after this. So, ask anybody in a white shirt and they'll tell you. I will tell you if I knew but I'm clueless. Other questions, about books or writing, or reading? Oh, c'mon you people. Yes.
[ Inaudible Remark ]
Is writing book is hard? What do you all think? Is writing book is hard? What's your guess? Heck, yeah! Anything that is worth doing is usually hard. Even loving children, you know, 'cause we all love our children but it's hard to be a mama. Writing books is hard but in the best possible way 'cause I love it. Does that make sense? You look like your question was more--
[ Inaudible Remark ]
Alright I'm with you. Okay, who out here wants to be a writer when they grow up? Oh, I'm so happy about that. Who wants to be something involving the arts? Who wants to be an artist, or a musician, or who has a passion they want to follow in some way? Hopefully, everybody. Alright so, yes, it is hard. Does that mean you shouldn't do it? No, you do it anyway. And when people tell you you're not good enough, you don't listen. You try to get better and when people tell you, "Oh, find another job." You don't listen. You keep on doing what it is your heart wants you to do because my guess is that we all are given gifts and if you overlapped with the world in the right way and you do what your talent allows you to do and then you'll add in a whole lot of work then that's how you going to be doing what the world wants us to do. I say God, you might say the Universe or Allah, or anything else but that's my goal as to begin alignment with the world. Any other questions? Purple shirt, you got to yell it out baby. Alright, somebody with the big boys call out. Do you get that? Oh, what tips can I give writers? Oh, I have tips coming out of the Yin-Yang which is not something I really want to imagine probably, but read and read, and read, write and write, and write, and then when you're reading, read the book first as a reader and just enjoy it, but then go back and read the book as a writer and every time you laugh, look at that passage and think, how did that happen? How did she make me laugh? How did he set this up? And every time you cry, go back and look. How did he pull that off? How did he create a scene that moves me in this way and start realizing that yes, books are magical and they always will be but they aren't created from magic. They're created from hard work, craft and technique and so start looking it how these authors accomplish that. And then one last tip I'd give you is--well two last tips. Make yourself finis things like don't give up in the middle of a book and if you find yourself bored in the middle of the book you're writing yourself, you've gone off track, you've lost the attention. So find out how you can up the stakes and then it give back into it. And then the second tip is there's a great book called "See Jane Write" that is most user-friendly book specially for people yours age that it gives you really good tips on how to set up plot and characters and even how to submit your book once it's time. So that book is called "See Jane Write." Okay, any other questions? I'm assuming they'll be a big folk that come at sometime and pulls me off. Is there--is it--alright, yeah. Beautiful sparkly girl, yell it out baby.
[ Inaudible Remark ]
>> Huh?
[ Inaudible Remark ]
No way, the same thing in this book? Some friend betrayed you? You had a bad friend and that's not a friend. What did you--did you get out of it? Did you find a way to get out? Oh, I'm so proud of you but I'm so sorry that happened. And so the cool thing is that happens to a lot of us. We have things that happened that really, really hurt and I'm sure you were like miserable and felt betrayed but if we read in a book, it gives you a chance to process that safely and kind of by yourself and maybe cry it out a little bit and then you realize, I'm not the only one and that's pretty powerful. Any other questions? More, more. Yes, adorable child in the very front.
[ Inaudible Remark ]
She asked, how long does it take me to write a book? Oh, my good heavens. Okay, so when I first started writing and I tell you all these. This is back to the hard question. For those of you all who want to be writers, it doesn't necessarily come easily. For some people it does. But for me, it took 5 years and 148 rejections before I got my first book published. That's a long time and so I had to keep on saying don't believe it, don't believe it like when people said you suck, I'm like, nope, yes, no and I cry and my husband say, "C'mon Lauren, backup. If you want to be a writer you're going to have to deal with rejection." Does anybody have seen the movie, The Help or read the book? I just love it when Constantine tells either everyday when you wake up you have to ask yourself, "Are you going to listen to the things those mean people say about you? Are you going to listen?" And you have to say no, you're not going to listen to that. So it took me a long time to first get published. These days have gotten quicker. Now it takes me about 4 months to write the first draft of a book and then from there it goes to my editor who tells me to write it again and so it takes about 6 months for the whole book to get done. Other questions? Yeah, cute little dude in a red. Did you have a question little dude in a red? Tell me what it is or whisper it to the girl in front of you and she'll say it.
^M00:21:30
[ Pause ]
^M00:21:36
Anybody get that? What time is hip-hop happening coming on, right away I bet.
[ Inaudible Remark ]
Alright, this guy says, lady if you'll get the freak off the stage maybe they would come. Alright, I think there're one more author and then the hip hop guys. So, thank you guys.
>> This has been a presentation of the Library of Congress. Visit us at loc.gov.